by Stephen Vagg
Film nerds across the world are sad this week at the passing of the talented, gorgeous, iconic Claudia Cardinale, star of many a classic film (The Leopard, 8 1/2, Fitzcarraldo, Rocco and His Brothers, The Pink Panther, Once Upon a Time in the West, etc). All cinephiles would be familiar with Ms Cardinale’s work, particularly from her 1960s heyday. It’s probably less well known that she made a movie in Australia, albeit one shot in Italian with a predominantly Italian cast and crew: 1971’s A Girl in Australia, Italian title Bello onesto emigrato Australia sposerebbe compaesana illibata (which apparently translates to “Handsome honest emigrant in Australia would marry chaste fellow-countrywoman” though please don’t quote us).
A Girl in Australia is set against the backdrop of Italian immigration to Australia after World War Two, a period much tackled via Australian films and TV shows (Love’s Brother, They’re a Weird Mob, Fields of Fire, etc), but this was the first time that we’ve seen that topic from an Italian filmmaker’s point of view.
It tells the story of a middle-aged Italian man living in the outback near Broken Hill; he’s lonely and wants a wife, so he imports a bride from back home, luring her by using a photo of his more attractive friend. The woman arrives and it turns out that she’s a prostitute fleeing her pimp. Shenanigans ensue, but all ends up happily.
The film was based on a story by Italian screenwriter Rodolfo Sonego, who was supposedly inspired to write it by a trip he took to rural Victoria to visit his sister who had emigrated to Australia. However, the basic set up – homely Italian migrant uses photo of his more attractive friend to lure hot young mail order bride from home – was used in the 1924 Sidney Howard play They Knew What They Wanted. This play won the Pulitzer, was filmed several times and turned into a musical, and seems to have inspired the plot of the Ruth Park and Darcy Niland radio and TV play A Little Slice of Heaven, as well as Jan Sardi’s film Love’s Brother, so it’s not unreasonable to surmise that Sonego was inspired by it as well.
The male lead in A Girl in Australia was played by Alberto Sordi, a hugely popular Italian film star from the era, though one who never crossed over to fame in English-speaking countries in the way, say, Marcello Mastroianni did. The female lead was originally announced for Monica Vitti, but somewhere along the line she dropped out and Claudia Cardinale stepped in. Riccardo Garrone plays the handsome friend, but most of the screen time is taken up by Sordi and Cardinale – the movie is basically a well-constructed star vehicle for the duo.
A Girl in Australia was directed by Luigi Zampa, a leading Italian filmmaker of the day who had made a number of comedies with Sordi. Columbia Pictures financed. The film (at one stage known as The Flying Fox) was shot in Australia in March and April 1971, by which time the Australian industry was up and going again, due to quotas for drama on commercial TV, increased funds at the ABC, and John Gorton creating the AFDC [Australian Film Development Corporation] (we’re not sure if the government had any money in this movie, though QANTAS are thanked in the credits).
Shooting took place in locations such as Sydney, Broken Hill and Cairns. There was a brief tiff at the beginning of filming – at Sydney airport no less – when local union members threatened to walk off set unless the Italian crew members joined their union; the Italians didn’t want to pay the high joining fee, but the production company stepped in to pay and everything was smoothed over.
We’ve seen A Girl in Australia without subtitles, so we didn’t entirely follow what was going on. But the wikipedia summary was very thorough and the movie comes across to our English-language-only-ears as a bright, sweet tale which benefits from two charismatic stars and location footage. Zampi shoves in as much Australiana as he can – the character’s travels take them from the outback, to Sydney, up to the Barrier Reef (where they encounter an Aboriginal tribe) and to the outback again. It’s a little silly geographically but the unit did travel all that way to Australia to make the movie, so you can’t blame them; besides, it kind of makes story sense that Sordi would want to take Cardinale to the prettiest spots in Australia.
Some Aussies pop up in the cast like Betty Lucas, Gil Tucker, and Noel Ferrier, but basically this is an Italian film and a very watchable one. It would make a great double bill with They’re a Weird Mob.
Oh, and Claudia Cardinale is gorgeous and a lot of fun – as she aways was. RIP, Clauds.
